I noticed this evening while we were opening presents, that one of our boars - Zachary - was squeaking a little when he defected. We had him on the couch with us. I thought it was strange, but shrugged it off as maybe just squeaking because he was so excited about the wrapping paper and toys.

Just now, I was changing out his cage - he uses fleece - and saw blood on the towels and cage liner. I'm scared to death! He has been eating well, energetic. He will be two years old in January. He's on Oxbow Cavy Cuisine, and has been since he was about 6 months old. Timothy hay, plenty of green veggies.

I have a supply of both Bactrim and Baytril on hand. Can someone tell me what I need to do until I can get him to a vet on Monday or Tuesday??? I'm worried sick!

I'm not sure about the medications. Hopefully, somebody else will stop by, although if you run a search you'll probably find something. Most people seem to report blood when the pigs pee, not poop. Unsweetened cranberry juice should be fine, either in the water or undiluted. If he's got a UTI, it can't hurt. If you do think it's a UTI, search for that or check this: http://www.guinealynx.info/uti.html

... along with some probiotics about an hour later. Poop soup from a healthy companion is the best place to start.

Ditto Amy on the unsweetened cranberry juice, if he'll take it. If you put it in his water and he won't drink it, take it out and give him fresh water. You want to keep him as hydrated and flushed as possible.

If it's a stone or sludge, and since he's a he, it may not wait until Monday. How close is your ER vet --- and are they any good at all with exotics?

Thanks, everyone. I can't believe this. I'm so darned careful about what I feed, and then to have this happen...

I went ahead and administered Bactrim until I can get ahold of our exotics vet. At 1.3 kg weight, I figured about .81cc -- that seems like a lot of Bactrim? But then I noticed that the vet prescribed it at .6cc for a slightly smaller piggie originally, so I guess I'm on track. My brain is so tired right now, I can't think straight.

Lynx, I'll take your suggestion and syringe water, although he does seem to be drinking plenty of it on his own. Also, he urinated just a little while ago on a piece of paper on the couch, and curiously enough I saw no blood at all. This, after seeing several very visible signs of it on the towels. Odd.

Why do these things always happen over the holidays or after-hours??? Amazing.

Thanks, Josephine. He seems to be urinating normally...in fact, shortly after I posted this, he urinated on a piece of paper on the couch -- no squeak, no blood that I could discern, no sludge.

I'm going to keep up with the Bactrim until I can reach a vet. His appetite and activity are both good. I'm suspecting this is a UTI.

I found some cranberry capsules in my medicine cabinet...the kind women take to help prevent UTI's. Do you know if I could empty the contents of the capsule and mix with water, and use that? Or dumb idea?

Is it natural? Is so, I don't see where that would be any different than using juice. I'm assuming you would mix it with water, but again, don't force it if he's not receptive to it. Just keep clean water coming.

I'm not going to worry with the cranberry capsules. The label doesn't really say what's in it, and I'm not going to chance it. When the store opens again tomorrow morning, I'll pick up some unsweetened juice and just use that if I need to. Lots of clean water in the meantime, which he seems to be drinking readily.

Follow-up: The boar had a set of xrays, two views, that showed nothing out of the ordinary. Urinalysis showed trace blood. The vet said to continue on the Bactrim for a total of 3 weeks. So far, I haven't found any more blood, and the squeaking upon urination/defecation seems to have stopped for now. I'm still not convinced that he's 100%. When he urinates, he stays stooped for several seconds as though his bladder still feels full.

My question is this. I have noticed that the boar is producing quite a bit of calcium deposit when he urinates. This is not ordinary for him. It's not sludge, but definitely white and a little gritty. I know it's normal to find this on occasion, but it's the first time that I've seen it with this particular pig. His diet is Cavy Cuisine, romaine, red and green leaf lettuce, green bell pepper, cucumber, a little carrot, and timothy/bluegrass hays from KMS.

What could be causing the increase in calcium output in the urine? I just want to be sure I'm not missing something.

The gritty could be causing the pain. There seems to be a genetic component to stones (and likely sludge). In spite of providing the most optimal diet, they may still have problems. Up fluids, read about interstitial cystitis and treat as though it was stones. You might try a couple of the herbs that people have found helpful when nothing else works. I think shilintong is one of them?

I'm glad you got X-Rays. I had a problem boar recently PTS who battled on and off for over a year with what I THOUGHT was recurring UTI's. For some reason, nobody ever wanted to X-Ray him and I didn't insist on it, as I should have. The eventual result was a bladder stone the size of a soybean. If I had X-Rayed him in the beginning we might have been able to surgically remove it.

His symptoms were as Becky said - He would pass blood sometimes and grunt sometimes, and then other times he would seem okay. What was happening was that the stone was moving around and occasionally getting lodged in his bladder horn, but after I'd mess with him a bit (massage, treatments, flushing, etc.) it would move and he would be okay again for a while. So, I kept thinking it was just UTIs.

Anyway, keep monitoring him and I'd X-Ray him every few months if you keep seeing deposits in his urine, and especially if the UTI seems to keep coming back.

Me, too. I'm also glad that we found a new exotics vet (since our former exotics guy retired), some 60 miles from where we live. She seemed extremely knowledgeable about cavies, and told me that she usually recommends xrays in that situation to help rule out stones. Of course, I realize that just because nothing showed up, doesn't mean nothing's there. But at least it gave us a baseline look at things.

On second thought, I'm not so sure what I'm seeing can be called "gritty." Maybe somewhere between chalky and gritty. It dries to a smooth, chalky consistency, but at the time of urination it looks a tad thick. I always thought "sludge" was a lot thicker and (for lack of a better word) chunkier. Maybe I'm off-base there. ? At any rate, the "white" I'm seeing in his urine is unusual for him.

We'll finish up the Bactrim on Saturday, and see where things stand. I'm thinking I might take a urine sample over to our "regular" vet, just to see if any trace blood is still showing up. Just to clarify, how do I "up" his fluid intake? Do you mean, administer by syringe? Plain water?

You can get water in any way you can. I usually wet lettuce down as much as I can. The piggie needs at least 100mls a day from what I understand. Keep track of the water level in the bowl or bottle too. If you think your piggie is really down on the water than you may want to syringe feed some several times daily.